DAUREL ET BETON
. A single 14th-century manuscript (B.N. nouv. acq. fr. 4232) preserves 2,200 lines of this
Occitan chanson de geste in rhymed laisses (the first five in Alexandrines, the rest
decasyllabic), composed ca. 1150–68. His father, Boves d’Antona, having been cruelly
betrayed, Beton passes his enfance in Babylonian exile with the jongleur Daurel, who
sacrifices his own child to save Beton. In a unique Odyssean prelude to Beton’s revenge,
Daurel recites the tale of betrayal before the traitor himself.
Amelia E.Van Vleck
Kimmel, Arthur S., ed. A Critical Edition of the Old Provençal Epic Daurel et Beton. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1971.
DAVID OF DINANT
(fl. early 13th c.). A philosopher whose thought is known only obliquely or from
fragments. The Council of Sens in 1210 ordered David’s works to be burned. Only a few
fragments are extant (De divisionibus). David is also paraphrased by Albert the Great,
who attacked his views fiercely. It is hard to reconstruct David’s thought, but he seems to
have developed his ideas, particularly on being and essence, from a close knowledge of
Aristotle, whom he translated and commented upon (the Quanternuli). His views were
instrumental in the prohibition of Aristotle’s works at the University of Paris.
Nothing is known of David’s life, except that he was probably from Dinant in modern
Belgium, and his title, magister, suggests a university education. In a letter of Innocent III
(1206), he is called “our chaplain.”
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: ARISTOTLE, INFLUENCE OF; PHILOSOPHY]
DECRETALS
. Many of the most important papal documents of the Middle Ages were decretals,
especially those rescripts offering legal advice to papal judges-delegate. The decretals of
popes like Alexander III and Innocent III were collected by private individuals, and later
the papacy promulgated official collections to the universities for teaching purposes.
Some of these decretals, like Innocent III’s Per venerabilem, concerned with the
legitimization of a French nobleman’s bastard son, were intended to create new law.
Other papal bulls, like Boniface VIII’s Clericis laicos, were constitutions, imposing law
on the universal church on the pope’s initiative.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 554